We're making short hops down the island chains these days as there are lots of great anchorages to check out. The weather has seemed to calm down a lot with wind pretty consistent out of the east or northeast in the 8-14 knot range. We anchor close to shore where ever possible so the wind is coming off shore with minimal wave action.

https://youtu.be/JEdPlhpaVLM?si=ZylW-WAmFgY_WZmp

As we moved south we were starting to see more civilization and we ended up in Staniel Cay. This is where I had my anodes flown in at the very reasonable cost of $45 high included the brokerage paperwork for the government. We anchored in a mooring field with about 50 other boats. The beach in front of us turned out to be pig beach. This is a tourist trap where you can go and feed the pigs that swim out to meet you. Apparently they can be quite aggressive and we had little interest so we just watch through the binoculars from the boat.

https://youtube.com/shorts/qAtpmGxgxHU?si=uvzmpnQlxgJL8IQb

We also had the opportunity to get fuel so we loaded our jerry cans into the dinghy and headed to the fuel dock. Larry, whose boat holds a few hundred gallons of fuel unfortunately had to fill his tanks and had to actually go and wait in line to tie up to the dock. There is only 1 diesel and 1 gas pump so when a big boat comes n to refuel it takes a considerable amount of time. Guys like me with 4 x 20 litre jugs get filled while the big boats are arriving and departing so I got filled within a few minutes in between big boats. Oh, and if the fuel prices being +$6/ US gallon isn enough, they charge the big boats a "convenience fee" of $25 for the privilege of tying up to their dock to refuel!

In the afternoon we headed ashore to re-provision as we needed milk, bread, a few veggies and eggs. There were 2 store choices, The Pink Store and The Blue Store. We ended up going to both. Selection was limited but you're in a 3rd world country so it was good just to have the opportunity to get food. They had most of the staples as well as some fruits and vegetables.

Our experience with the bread in the Bahamas has been interesting. On Grand Bahama Island we could get commercially baked bread similar to what you get back home. We're not sure what all is in it but it lasted 2 weeks and still wasn't going stale so I'm sure it was all natural ingredients. Down here they bake bread locally and it is very dense and is more like cake than bread....and it's awesome. So we got both! Not sure about the carb content on it either!

https://youtu.be/ftsFcQHv9Ik?si=g39i6nshbF8Tj3lx

On Tuesday morning we had the privilege of being woken up naturally....by a rooster at 4 am! There are lots of them down here and this one was on Newfoundland time as he was 3 hours before sunrise! But that gave us lots of time to get ready to hoist anchor for the next bay. We also discovered that my wetsuit decided to jump ship overnight. We had both suits hanging well inside the cockpit to dry and somehow mine managed to slip of the linens make it over the stern, over the dinghy and head off onto its own adventure out to sea. We searched for close to an hour along the shorelines and through the channels but with a 3 knot current it's on its way to Africa at this point!


today's shot lookin' out my back door at our trusty dinghy waiting to take us on another local adventure.